The Single Most Important Thing You Could Do

Invite a friend to church. It might be the single most important thing you do for someone else’s life.

 

Knowing the recent tragedy Heather and her husband had just faced, I was instantly curious as I read the beginning of her Facebook post. Heather and Jeramy, parents to 1 year old Harper, were 25 weeks pregnant with their second daughter when they lost Reagan to Turner Syndrome. TS is a rare genetic disorder that only occurs in girls. 

Her post continued,

I just learned that a large order of “Reagan” bow headbands was placed today from my MOPS [Mothers of Preschoolers] group that sent Violet Bowtique [a friend's Etsy store] over $2,000 in sales from one headband in less than a month - ALL of which is being donated to the TS Society in memory of Reagan. Most of these women I met less than a year ago. Most of them I barely know. They pooled their money together to donate to the Turner Syndrome Society in memory of Reagan and will be handing out “Reagan” bow headbands during our next season of MOPS to all newborn girls to raise awareness of Turner Syndrome in our community.

This is only one example of the selfless acts of kindness we’ve experienced from our church family - people we’ve only known for a short time, but have loved us like family - during the loss of our baby girl.

When Jeramy and I first moved back to Fort Wayne in 2011 after living in Indy, we were looking for a church close to our new home. My co-worker at the time, Nathan Kline, invited us to check out Emmanuel Community Church. We took him up on his offer, checked out the church, loved Pastor Denny's message, left wanting to hear more and began attending regularly.

Nate never could have known that 4 years later Jeramy and I would be told we wouldn't get to keep our second baby girl. He never could have known that the sermons Pastor Denny would preach during the weeks I carried Reagan would be the words and messages I needed to hear to not give up. He never could have known that I would run out of words to pray and would need to close my eyes during worship and sing those songs as my prayer. He never could have known that I would need to call the Children’s Pastor to pray and cry with her every week after each Dr’s appointment. He couldn’t have known that I would need the grief counseling services provided by his church or that my parents would need the staff to sit and pray with them at the hospital while they waited for their baby girl to deliver their still-born granddaughter. Nate had no idea that one day we would need his Pastor to conduct a funeral for our daughter. He didn’t know that there would be a time I would need his church family to bring me meals to help remind me to eat. Four years ago, he had no idea that his wife would be taking up a collection from a group of Mom's at church to place an order for headbands in memory of our daughter to help raise awareness for the genetic disorder that took her life and so severely impacted ours. Nate had no idea how broken I would become and how God would use the people from his church to help heal me.
It was a simple invitation four years ago that neither of us could have known would be the single most important thing that anyone has ever done for me and my family.

 

Teary eyed, I took a breath.  This mother was no more than a couple months out from the death of her daughter yet her message was not about loss.  Her message was clear: God provides beauty in the midst of pain and as the church we have the privilege of reflecting Jesus' love by doing life with those around us.  

So, I encourage you to invite a friend to church. It takes little effort, but can make a huge impact. If you’re looking for a place to learn more about God, I invite you to check out Emmanuel Community Church.

 

As Heather said, it was a simple invitation.  Yet this invitation changed the lives of this family. Inviting a friend to church takes little effort, but can make a huge impact.  

Who has God been nudging you to invite to church?